The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks

Author: Skloot, Rebecca, 1972-

Title: The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks

Published: New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2011

Description: xiv, 381 p., plates :ill. (some col.) ; 25 cm.

Call Number: RC265.6 L24 S55 2011

Note(s): "Originally published in hardcover in slightly different form ... by Crown Publishers ... in 2010"--T.p. verso. "Reading group guide"--P. [379]-381

Subject(s):

• Lacks, Henrietta, 1920-1951--Health
• Cancer--Patients--Virginia--Biography
• African American women--History
• Human experimentation in medicine--United States--History
• HeLa cells
• Cancer--Research
• Cell culture
• Medical ethics

 Review(s):

• Sands, Jon M. "THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS." Jurimetrics: The Journal Of Law, Science & Technology 51, no. 2 (Winter 2011): 131-139
• Littlefield, Melissa M., and Anne Pollock. "Review essay: Troubling with ‘the ethics of the thing’ in Culturing Life: How Cells Became Technologies and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." Social Studies Of Science (Sage Publications, Ltd.) 41, no. 4 (August 2011): 609-618
• Scannell, Kate. "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." Journal Of Legal Medicine 31, no. 4 (October 2010): 493-498

Read: November 18, 2011

Death traps: the survival of an American armored division in World War II

Author: Cooper, Belton Y.

Title: Death traps: the survival of an American armored division in World War II

Published: New York: Ballantine Books, 2003

Description: xxiv, 355 p. :ill., maps ; 23 cm.

Call Number: D793 C66 2003

Note(s): Originally published by Random House, 1998. Foreword by Stephen E. Ambrose

Summary: The survival of an American armored division in World War II is told from the point of view of an American junior officer, a member of the famous 3rd Armored Division assigned to keep the tanks in Nazi-occupied Europe on the front lines

Subject(s):

• Cooper, Belton Y.
• United States. Army--Ordnance and ordnance stores
• United States. Army--Biography
• World War, 1939-1945--Tank warfare
• World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
• Sherman tank
• Soldiers--United States--Biography

Review(s):

• Pounder, Gary. "Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II (Book Review)." Aerospace Power Journal 15, no. 2 (Summer2001 2001): 112
• Burnham, Robert. "Adult Books for Young Adults: Nonfiction." School Library Journal 45, no. 4 (April 1999): 162
• "Forecasts: Nonfiction." Publishers Weekly 245, no. 37 (September 14, 1998): 59

Read: November 10, 2011

The poisoner's handbook: murder and the birth of forensic medicine in Jazz Age New York

Author: Blum, Deborah,1954-

Title: The poisoner’s handbook: murder and the birth of forensic medicine in Jazz Age New York

Published: New York: Penguin Press, 2010

Description: 319 p. ;  24 cm.

Call Number: HV6555 U62 N373 2010

Bibliography: p. 286-287

Summary: The untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. A pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler investigate a family mysteriously stricken bald, factory workers with crumbling bones, a diner serving poisoned pies, and many others. Each case presents a deadly new puzzle and Norris and Gettler create revolutionary experiments to tease out even the wiliest compounds from human tissue. From the vantage of their laboratory it also becomes clear that murderers aren’t the only toxic threat--modern life has created a kind of poison playground, and danger lurks around every corner

Subject(s):

• Poisoning -- New York (State) -- History
• Forensic toxicology -- New York (State) -- History
• Forensic sciences -- New York (State) -- History

Review(s):

• "The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine In Jazz Age New York." Publishers Weekly 257, no. 18 (May 3, 2010): 46-47
• Taylor, Gilbert. "The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York." Booklist 106, no. 11 (February 2010): 12
• Collins, Paul. "How Manhattan's nicest murderers met their match." New Scientist 205, no. 2746 (February 6, 2010): 47

Read: November 6, 2011

The last mission of the Wham Bam boys: courage, tragedy, and justice in World War II

Author: Freeman, Gregory A.

Title: The last mission of the Wham Bam boys: courage, tragedy, and justice in World War II

Published: New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

Call Number: D757.9 R87 F74 2011

Description: x, 236 p. :ill., maps ; 25 cm.

Bibliography: p. 230-233

Subject(s):

• United States. Army Air Forces -- Airmen
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities -- Germany -- Rüsselsheim
• Lynching -- Germany -- Rüsselsheim
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Aerial operations, American
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Germany
• Bombing, Aerial -- Moral and ethical aspects
• Civilians in war -- Germany -- Rüsselsheim
• Rüsselsheim (Germany) -- History -- 20th century

Review(s):

• "THE LAST MISSION OF THE WHAM BAM BOYS Courage, Tragedy, and Justice in World War II." Kirkus Reviews 79, no. 3 (February 2011): 182

Read: October 29, 2011

Paying for it: a comic-strip memoir about being a john

Author: Brown, Chester, 1960-

Title: Paying for it: a comic-strip memoir about being a john

Published: Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2011

Description: viii, 280 p. :chiefly ill. ; 20 cm.

Call Number: PN6733 B76 P39 2011

Bibliography: p. 279-280

Summary: "Brown calmly lays out the facts of how he became not only a willing participant in but also a vocal proponent of one of the world's most hot-button topics--prostitution. Paying For It offers an entirely contemporary exploration of sex work--from the timid john who rides his bike to meet his escorts, wonders how to tip so as not to offend, and reads Dan Savage for advice, to the modern-day transactions complete with online reviews, seemingly willing participants, and clean apartments devoid of cliches street corners, drugs, or primps"--From publisher's web site

Subject(s):

• Brown, Chester, 1960- -- Sexual behavior -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Brown, Chester, 1960- -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Prostitution -- Canada -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Prostitutes' customers -- Canada -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Sexual ethics -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Comic books, strips, etc. -- Canada
• Prostitution -- Canada
• Sexual ethics
• Graphic novels

Review(s):

• ANNIE, SPRINKLE. "A John's Story." New York Times Book Review (July 3, 2011): 15
• Cornog, Martha. "Paying for It: A Comic-Strip Memoir About Being a John." Library Journal 136, no. 12 (July 2011): 63-64
• Flagg, Gordon. "Paying for It: A Comic-strip Memoir about Being a John." Booklist 107, no. 18 (May 15, 2011): 37

Read: October 29, 2011

The death-ray

Author: Clowes, Daniel

Title: The death-ray

Published: Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2011

Description:    40 p. :chiefly col. ill. ;  32 cm.

Call Number: PN6727 C65 D42 2011

Note(s):  Originally published in Eightball #23, 2004

Summary: Andy, a miserable high-schooler in 1970s Chicago, has only one friend, an angry fellow outcast named Louie. He’s desperately in love with a girl he met in California who won’t return his letters and he’s filled with shame at the constant taunts of his classmates. When he achieves super strength from smoking cigarettes he uses it for neither good nor evil but in a brutal playground showdown

Subject(s):

• Teenagers -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Superheroes -- Comic books, strips, etc
• High schools -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Nineteen seventies -- Comic books, strips, etc
• Fantasy comic books, strips, etc
• Comic books, strips, etc
• Graphic novels

Review(s):

• Köhler, Nicholas. "THE DEATH-RAY." Maclean's 124, no. 41 (October 24, 2011): 75
• Flagg, Gordon. "The Death-Ray." Booklist 108, no. 4 (October 15, 2011): 34
• MACDONALD, HEIDI. "Classics New and Old." Publishers Weekly 258, no. 26 (June 27, 2011): 32-36

Read: October 25, 2011

And then came the liberators

Author: Jaern, Albert

Uniform Title: Og så kom befrierne. English

Title: And then came the liberators

Published: Madison: Borderland Books, 2011

Description: 102,17 p. :ill. ;  23 cm.

Call Number: D811.5 J3413 2011

Note(s): Translation of: Og så kom befrierne. First published as: Og så kom befrierne : utdrag av min dagbok gjennom 5 år. Norway: Ekko, 1945. Illustrated by the author’s own woodcuts. Translated from the Norwegian by Solveig Schavland; with an afterword by Kathleen Stokker; edited by Richard Quinney

Subject(s):

• World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Norwegian

Review(s): Forthcoming

Read: October 15, 2011

Churchill

Author: Johnson, Paul, 1928-

Title: Churchill

Published: New York: Penguin, 2010

Description: 180 p. ; 20 cm.

Call Number: DA566.9 C5 J64 2010

Note(s): Originally published: New York: Viking, 2009

Subject(s):

• Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965
• Prime ministers -- Great Britain -- Biography
• Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 20th century

Review(s):

• Rector, Henry M. "PAUL JOHNSON'S BRIEF LIFE OF CHURCHILL." Naval War College Review 63, no. 4 (September 2010): 148-150
• Arnn, Larry P. "Young Thruster, Old Sage." Commentary 129, no. 4 (April 2010): 61-62
• Linklater, Andro. "Man of the Hour, Not the Century." American Conservative 8, no. 14 (November 2009): 48-50

Read: September 19, 2011

Extra lives: why video games matter

Author: Bissell, Tom, 1974-

Title: Extra lives: why video games matter

Published:  New York: Vintage Books, 2011

Description: xiv, 242 p. ; 21 cm.

Call Number: GV1469.3 B55 2011

Note(s): Originally published: New York: Pantheon Books, 2010. With new appendix

Subject(s):

• Video games -- History
• Video games -- Social aspects

Review(s):

• Fehrman, Craig. "Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter." Christian Science Monitor, June 29, 2010., N.PAG
• GARNER, DWIGHT. "In Defense of Video Games: A Player's Manifesto on the Sublime Buzz." New York Times (June 23, 2010): 7
• Philips, Jen. "Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter." Mother Jones 35, no. 3 (May 2010): 72

Read: September 11, 2011

The little stranger

Author: Waters, Sarah, 1966-

Title: The little stranger

Published: New York: Riverhead Books, 2009

Description: 512 p. ; 21 cm.

Call Number: PR6073 A828 L58 2009

Subject(s):

• Domestic fiction
• Ghost stories
• Families -- England -- Warwickshire -- Fiction
• Warwickshire (England) -- Fiction

Review(s):

• Crapo, Trish. "All-Day Reading." Women's Review Of Books 27, no. 1 (January 2010): 20-22
• Bourke, Joanna. "Sacred Hearts/Hodd/The Little Stranger." History Today 59, no. 10 (October 2009): 55
• Block, Allison. "The Little Stranger." Booklist 105, no. 22 (August 2009): 85

Read: September 8, 2011

The circuit: stories from the life of a migrant child

Author: Jiménez, Francisco,1943-

Title: The circuit: stories from the life of a migrant child

Published: Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997

Description: x, 134 p. ; 18 cm.

Call Number: PS3560 I55 C57 1997

Subject(s):

• Mexican Americans -- California -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
• Migrant agricultural laborers -- California -- Fiction

Review(s):

• Betty Christine Eng, et al. "Part V: Guide to New Resources." Multicultural Perspectives 10, no. 3 (July 2008): 175-181
• Goldsmith, Francisca. "The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child." School Library Journal 47, no. 10 (October 2001): 94
• "'Your Story Is the Story of Our Family'." Writing 23, no. 5 (February 2001): 3

Read: September 2, 2011

Nickel and dimed: on (not) getting by in America

Author: Ehrenreich, Barbara

Title: Nickel and dimed: on (not) getting by in America

Published: New York: Metropolitan Books, 2001

Description: 221 p. ; 22 cm.

Call Number: HD4918 E375 2001

Subject(s):

• Minimum wage -- United States
• Unskilled labor -- United States
• Poverty -- United States

Review(s):

• Belle, Deborah. "Securing the Future: Investing in Children from Birth to College/ Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America/ The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values/ The Widening Gap: Why America's Working Families are in Jeopardy and What Can be Done .." Analyses Of Social Issues & Public Policy 2, no. 1 (December 2002): 279-283
• Petschauer, Peter. "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America." NWSA Journal 14, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 34
• Early, Steve. "Prole Like Me." Nation 272, no. 23 (June 11, 2001): 52-53

Read: August 29, 2011

The psychopath test: a journey through the madness industry

Author: Ronson, Jon, 1967-

Title: The psychopath test: a journey through the madness industry

Published: New York: Riverhead Books, 2011

Description: 275 p. :ill. ; 22 cm.

Call Number: HV33 R66 2011

Summary: "In this madcap journey, a bestselling journalist investigates psychopaths and the industry of doctors, scientists, and everyone else who studies them. The Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey through the minds of madness. Jon Ronson's exploration of a potential hoax being played on the world's top neurologists takes him, unexpectedly, into the heart of the madness industry. An influential psychologist who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are, in fact, psychopaths teaches Ronson how to spot these high-flying individuals by looking out for little telltale verbal and nonverbal clues. And so Ronson, armed with his new psychopath-spotting abilities, enters the corridors of power. He spends time with a death-squad leader institutionalized for mortgage fraud in Coxsackie, New York; a legendary CEO whose psychopathy has been speculated about in the press; and a patient in an asylum for the criminally insane who insists he's sane and certainly not a psychopath. Ronson not only solves the mystery of the hoax but also discovers, disturbingly, that sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are, with their drives and obsessions, as mad in their own way as those they study. And that relatively ordinary people are, more and more, defined by their maddest edges"-- Provided by publisher

Subject(s):

• Psychopaths

Review(s):

• PAUL, BLOOM. "I'm O.K., You're a Psychopath." New York Times Book Review (June 19, 2011): 31
• Murphy, Samantha. "The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry." Scientific American Mind 22, no. 3 (July 2011): 69
• "THE PSYCHOPATH TEST A Journey Through the Madness Industry." Kirkus Reviews 79, no. 9 (May 2011): 757-758

Read: August 14, 2011

The phantom father: a memoir

Author: Gifford, Barry,1946-

Title: The phantom father: a memoir

Published: New York: Harcourt Brace, 1997

Description: 257 p. : ill. ;  22 cm.

Call Number: PS3557 I25 Z47 1997

Note (s): "Some of the material was originally published in: A good man to know. Clark City Press, in 1992"--T.p. verso

Subject(s):

• Gifford, Barry, 1946- -- Homes and haunts -- Illinois -- Chicago
• Gifford, Barry, 1946- -- Childhood and youth
• Gifford, Barry, 1946- -- Family
• Winston, Rudy
• Authors, American -- 20th century -- Family relationships
• Gangsters -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Biography
• Fathers -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Biography
• Chicago (Ill.) -- Social life and customs

Review(s):

• Bonomo, Joe. "`Mystery every time': Memoirs and the search for `we'." Georgia Review 52, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 572-581
• ICHIKO, KAKUTANI. "He Remembers Papa, Or Does He Really?." New York Times, June 27, 1997., 29
• Gargan, William. "The Phantom Father: A Memoir." Library Journal 122, no. 8 (May 1997): 103-104

Read: August 11, 2011

The sojourn

Author: Krivak, Andrew

Title: The sojourn

Published: New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2011

Description: 191 p. ; 19 cm.

Call Number: PS3561 R569 S65 2011

Summary: Uprooted from a nineteenth century mining town in Colorado by a shocking family tragedy, young Jozef Vinich returns with his father to an impoverished shepherd's life in rural Austria-Hungary. When war comes, Jozef is sent as a sharpshooter to the southern front, where he must survive the killing trenches, a perilous trek across the frozen Italian Alps, and capture by a victorious enemy

Subject(s):

• World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
• Soldiers -- Austria -- Fiction
• Historical fiction

Review(s):

• Chadwell, Faye A. "The Sojourn." Library Journal 136, no. 8 (May 2011): 76
• "The Sojourn." Publishers Weekly 258, no. 6 (February 7, 2011): 33-34

Read: August 9, 2011

Field gray: a Bernie Gunther novel

Author: Kerr, Philip

Title: Field gray: a Bernie Gunther novel

Published: New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2011

Description: 435 p. ; 24 cm.

Call Number: PR6061 E784 F54 2011

Note(s): "A Marian Wood book."

Summary: It's 1954 and Bernie finds himself flown back to Berlin to work for the French or hang for murder. Bernie's job is simple: to meet and greet POWs returning from Germany and snag one Edgard de Boudel, a French war criminal and member of the French SS. But Bernie's past as a German POW in Russia is about to catch up with him -- in a way he could never have foreseen

Subject(s):

• Gunther, Bernhard (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
• Private investigators -- Fiction
• Mystery fiction
• Spy stories
• Historical fiction

Review(s):

• BETHUNE, BRIAN. "Midnight in the garden of evil." Maclean's 124, no. 18 (May 16, 2011): 143
• Keymer, David. "Field Gray: A Bernie Gunther Novel." Library Journal 136, no. 5 (March 15, 2011): 108-109
• "Field Gray." Publishers Weekly 258, no. 8 (February 21, 2011): 110

Read: July 22, 2011